A user may rely on a personal digital assistant to facilitate carrying out certain computer-implemented tasks. In operation, the user may directly issue a spoken command to the personal digital assistant, such as by instructing, “Assistant, set up an appointment with John Smith on Tuesday at 10 o'clock AM.” The personal digital assistant applies natural language processing to interpret the user's spoken instruction, and then carries out the user's instruction. While digital assistant technology now offers satisfactory availability, accuracy and convenience, interacting with a personal digital assistant represents an artificial human-machine exchange that departs from the typical manner in which users interact with their environments.